Zune HD hackers launch development kit, homebrew apps about to get awesome

The Zune HD is an interesting device. On the one hand it’s got a slick user interface, a speedy processor, and a high quality OLED display, which make it a rather attractive alternative to the iPod touch. On the other hand, there are virtually no third party apps for the Zune HD, which means that you end up spending about as much money for a Zune HD as you do for an iPod touch — but one is just a media player that can handle a few games while the other is a handheld tool that can play music and movies and run thousands of third party games and other apps.

Up until now, third party developers could use Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio to write apps, but it didn’t provide full access to all of the Zune HD’s features. The device has an NVIDIA Tegra processor with OpenGL ES 2.0 support and custom shaders. OpenZDK lets developers write apps that will use all of those features.

In plain English, that means that apps built with XNA couldn’t do 3D. Games built using the new OpenZDK tool can feature 3D graphics.

Unfortunately in order to install third party apps built using OpenZDK you’ll need to install Microsoft’s developer tools on your PC. They won’t show up in the Zune Marketplace anytime soon. But hopefully if there’s enough interest in creating and installing third party apps for the Zune HD, Microsoft will loosen its restrictions a bit. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking.

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personally, i;ve bought both ipod and zune.for me, features are a lot better on the ipod, however the zune is just more convenient, compatible with files, and just friendlier.one thing i dislike A LOT about the zune is the repeat button! The are qualitatively superior to ipods/itunes. I pay $15 a month for the Zune Marketplace that that allows me 10 songs to keep and the whole library to stream.